Daniel Ortega

Daniel Ortega (11 November 1945-) was President of Nicaragua from 18 July 1979 to 25 April 1990, succeeding Francisco Urcuyo and preceding Violeta Chamorro, and again from 10 January 2007, succeeding Enrique Bolanos.

Biography
Daniel Ortega was born on 11 November 1945 in La Libertad, Nicaragua to a working-class family. Ortega was trained in guerrilla warfare in Cuba by Fidel Castro and joined the Sandinistas in their struggle against the United States-supported dictator Anastasio Somoza, and on 18 July 1979 he became the Coordinator of the Junta of National Reconstruction of Nicaragua, leading Nicaragua's socialist government during its transition into a government. Ortega was unfriendly towards the USA due to their support of Somoza, and the USA returned the ire when Ortega gave his support to the FMLN rebels in El Salvador. Ortega and the Sandinistas fought against the US-armed Contras, right-wing and anti-communist rebels that waged guerrilla warfare against the socialist government. Ortega supervised the first presidential elections in the country in 1985, when he was formally made President of Nicaragua. During his tenure as President, Ortega led wealth redistribution, land reform, and literacy programs to help his people, although they were controversial due to their leftist connotations. In 1990, he lost the elections to Violeta Chamorro and her anti-communist party, but in 2007 he was reelected as President of Nicaragua seventeen years later at the age of 62. He switched the views of the Sandinistas from Marxism-Leninism to democratic socialism as many other former leftist Cold War parties did, and he was friendly towards Iran and Venezuela.